e in that
stable; the cow-house, for milk cattle; the barn, to hold the wheat and
maize-corn; the smoke-house, for curing bacon; a large building for the
dry tobacco; a cotton-gin, with its shed of clap-boards; bins for the
husk fodder, and several smaller structures. In one corner you saw a
low-walled erection that reminded you of a kennel, and the rich music
that from time to time issued from its apertures would convince you that
it _was_ a kennel. If you had peeped into it, you would have seen a
dozen of as fine stag-hounds as ever lifted a trail. The colonel was
somewhat partial to these pets, for he was a `mighty hunter.' You might
see a number of young colts in an adjoining lot; a pet deer, a
buffalo-calf, that had been brought from the far prairies, pea-fowl,
guinea-hens, turkeys, geese, ducks, and the usual proportion of common
fowls. Rail-fences zigzagged off in all directions towards the edge of
the woods. Huge trees, dead and divested of their leaves, stood up in
the cleared fields. Turkey buzzards and carrion, crows might be seen
perched upon their grey naked limbs; upon their summit you might observe
the great rough-legged falcon; and above all, cutting sharply against
the blue sky, the fork-tailed kite sailing gently about."

Here the doctor's auditory interrupted him with a murmur of applause.
The doctor was in fine spirits, and in a poetical mood. He continued.

"Such, gentlemen, was the sort of place I had come to visit; and I saw
at a glance that I could spend a few days there pleasantly enough--even
without the additional attractions of a pigeon-hunt.

"On my arrival I found the party assembled. It consisted of a score and
a half of ladies and gentlemen, nearly all young people. The pigeons
had not yet made their appearance, but were looked for every hour. The
woods had assumed the gorgeous tints of autumn, that loveliest of
seasons in the `far west.' Already the ripe nuts and berries were
scattered profusely over the earth offering their annual banquet to
God's wild creatures. The `mast' of the beech-tree, of which the wild
pigeon is so fond, was showering down among the dead leaves. It was the
very season at which the birds were accustomed to visit the beechen
woods that girdled the colonel's plantation. They would no doubt soon
appear. With this expectation everything was made ready; each of the
gentlemen was provided with a fowling-piece, or rifle if he preferred
it; and even som